But they have warned that the Commission must improve its own performance in preparing and implementing projects to make a real difference to the effectiveness of the Union’s 1.1-billion euro EuroMed initiative.

The Commission unveiled a proposal last week to boost efforts to create a Mediterranean free-trade area by focusing cooperation measures on preparations for a liberalised trading zone by 2010.

The plan is aimed at streamlining the way funding decisions are taken under the EuroMed programme. Instead of submitting individual projects to a committee of experts from national capitals, the changes would require governments to approve national programmes for each country participating in the EuroMed process and the necessary annual financing arrangements.

This would mean a move from a piecemeal to a more “strategic-based” approach which would be better focused on the preparations each country needs to make towards building the free-trade area.

But diplomats warn that although member states support the aim of the initiative, some may be reluctant to give the Commission more power unless it makes major efforts to improve its own handling of projects both before and after they have been approved. The Commission has been criticised in the past for imposing heavy bureaucratic burdens on schemes which have caused delays.

Commission officials say the results of previous programmes have demonstrated the need for reform, and point out that eight of the 12 countries in the EuroMed programme have individual strategies for eliminating barriers to trade through association agreements with the EU.

The Union has so far signed such accords which set out terms for cooperation in the political, economic, technical and social fields, with Turkey, Malta, Cyprus, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian authority. Agreements with Egypt and Algeria are due to be finalised soon. These accords set out each country’s priorities for moving towards free-trade, covering actions such as lowering tariffs, ending quotas and other economic measures to liberalise trade.

Under the EU’s MEDA programme, the Union finances a raft of actions designed to prepare countries for a more liberal trading environment.

These include various macro-economic measures intended to provide an attractive investment climate such as budgetary assistance on balance-of-payments and deficit reduction.

In addition to these measures, the Union funds a range of schemes designed to help individual businesses, with aid for small enterprises, training programmes and management advice.